BuzzTV U5 Launch Edition and ejected Western Digital drive

[JasonN]

Hello,

I have BuzzTV U5 Launch Edition and the 1 TB Western Digital drive (that came with it) is constantly ejected. The only way to get the BuzzTV to re-mount the hard drive again is to factory reset the BuzzTV box. The hard drive will be operational for a few hours and then will be ejected by Android again.

I have done this factory-reset cycle 4-5 times now. Has anybody experienced this before?

Thanks,

Jason

[dishuser]

after mounting it did you format it?

[JasonN]

Yes, I formatted it. As a test, I took out the WD drive and installed a 120 GB SSD that I had. The SSD has been running (not ejected) for 3 days now.

[Emporium]

I will ask a "silly" question..  Are you using the Power supply that came with the U5, or are you using a power supply from a previou BuzzTV box ?

Reason I ask, is that the xrs4900 and U5 use a 12V power supply (probably for compatibility with most SATA drives - SATA power spec includes 3.3V, 5V and 12V), compared to the 5V power supplies that all the other models use.  The U5 will power up with the 5V power supply from other boxes (and the connector fits), but it will exhibit issues with the HDD.   Another user in another forum was complaining about HDD issues and even had Buzz schedule to call him for remote support, until I asked him the very same question, and you can imagine what the answer is.

I also have a U5 which came with a 1TB WD blue.  However, I never installed the HDD that came with it, I ended up installed a 1TB SSD I had lying around.

 

 

[JasonN]

Great question! I am using the power cable that came with the U5.

[nbs.]

 

11 minutes ago, JasonN said:

Great question! I am using the power cable that came with the U5.

You can email buzz about the HD

[gherna1]

I also suffer from the same issue. I noticed that the SSD drive (original WD 1TB) is way too hot when it disconnects. I suspect that is the reason.
Why did BUZZTV not provide a small fan built into the unit? It's a known issue that heat and power glitches, even those of microseconds in duration, can render 'digital' devices malfunctioning and doing weird things. I bought this unit, costing me hundreds of dollars, in spite of having another one that is working ok, just for its ability to record. What a disappointment! I have given up on recording to the SSD.
Please pass these comments up to the designers of future units.

[dishuser]

16 minutes ago, gherna1 said:

I also suffer from the same issue. I noticed that the SSD drive (original WD 1TB) is way too hot when it disconnects. I suspect that is the reason.
Why did BUZZTV not provide a small fan built into the unit? It's a known issue that heat and power glitches, even those of microseconds in duration, can render 'digital' devices malfunctioning and doing weird things. I bought this unit, costing me hundreds of dollars, in spite of having another one that is working ok, just for its ability to record. What a disappointment! I have given up on recording to the SSD.
Please pass these comments up to the designers of future units.

did you attach the foam strip?

[Emporium]

One clarification, the drive provided is NOT an SSD drive.  It is just 1 TB blue laptop 2.5" drive.

I actually installed a 1TB Micron SSD drive and have no heat issues on my unit.   When I did my initial testing of the device I left it on for at least 3 days straight and doing at least 3 or 4 recording a day, and had no disconnects.

Even on my older xrs4900, I installed a 240GB SSD instead to avoid any heat build up.

Do you have a spare small SSD drive to see if the problem is due to the heat accumulation from the mechanical drive ?

Edited December 26, 2022 by Emporium

[nbs.]

32 minutes ago, gherna1 said:

I also suffer from the same issue. I noticed that the SSD drive (original WD 1TB) is way too hot when it disconnects. I suspect that is the reason.
Why did BUZZTV not provide a small fan built into the unit? It's a known issue that heat and power glitches, even those of microseconds in duration, can render 'digital' devices malfunctioning and doing weird things. I bought this unit, costing me hundreds of dollars, in spite of having another one that is working ok, just for its ability to record. What a disappointment! I have given up on recording to the SSD.
Please pass these comments up to the designers of future units.

Op does not mention having any heat issues?

I don't have any heat issues

[Ryu]

same here no heating issues. make sure your device is in room temp and nothing blocking your device.

[kevinShamrock1]

Same problem. 

[nbs.]

53 minutes ago, kevinShamrock1 said:

Same problem. 

No info

[Kramer Naylor]

I have the U5 launch edition and the hdd that came with it also ran extremely hot and kept ejecting and malfunctioning. I went and bought a 1tb SSD and no problems whatsoever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gherna1]

Hi! I posted recently that I suffer from the same issue and thought it was caused by overheating. NOT! I purchased a SATA III 2’ extension to connect the HDD (not SSD) and now the HDD is cool but it still disconnects spontaneously.  I now get TS error messages because the PVR has scheduled recordings but the BIOS says there’s no HDD to record to. 
Any BUZZTV moderators here who can shed some light on this issue?

I’ve read here the U5 works fine with a true SSD drive. I just don’t have the cash today to give that a try. 

[Emporium]

Can you try to disable the TS (Timeshift) function for a while to see if that may be causing the issue, since it is a continuous write..

 

[gherna1]

Hi. Thank you for the feedback. I have done so to no avail. I’ve replaced the HDD with another HDD to discard the possibility of a defective HDD. NOT! Weird thing is, once I formatted the new drive (multiple times), I could not transfer data to it. After that, a new “Android” drive shows under “Storage”, and after several attempts to do so, I now see several identical HDDs listed, besides the original one, but all say “Disconnected”. 
What gives? I think the BIOS needs rework. This is so disappointing!

[nbs.]

Quote

3 minutes ago, gherna1 said:

Hi. Thank you for the feedback. I have done so to no avail. I’ve replaced the HDD with another HDD to discard the possibility of a defective HDD. NOT! Weird thing is, once I formatted the new drive (multiple times), I could not transfer data to it. After that, a new “Android” drive shows under “Storage”, and after several attempts to do so, I now see several identical HDDs listed, besides the original one, but all say “Disconnected”. 
What gives? I think the BIOS needs rework. This is so disappointing!

 

the dev will be back on monday 

[dishuser]

31 minutes ago, gherna1 said:

Hi. Thank you for the feedback. I have done so to no avail. I’ve replaced the HDD with another HDD to discard the possibility of a defective HDD. NOT! Weird thing is, once I formatted the new drive (multiple times), I could not transfer data to it. After that, a new “Android” drive shows under “Storage”, and after several attempts to do so, I now see several identical HDDs listed, besides the original one, but all say “Disconnected”. 
What gives? I think the BIOS needs rework. This is so disappointing!

I see 2 usb's not connected and 3 others listed that are connected (only have 3)

how did you format drive and what did you select?

[gherna1]

Hi. I formatted the new drive  using the same default option for storage and something else (I forget the wording). Next, I tried storing my device data (apps and stuff) on it and this is where it supposedly failed, prompting me to repeat the procedure, only to discover that the drive still does not work and now I see it listed multiple times without an option to remove or “connect” a disconnected drive. 
On the repeat occasions the formatting appeared to be functioning (progress bar) but others it would simply and immediately display a message saying “formatting completed”. 
At this point I simply gave up and have ordered a 1TB SSD to try with. 
The two drives are WD HDDs, 1TB capacity; one the original that came with the “Launch” promo and the other I had laying around from another PC. 

[dishuser]

format as removable storage

[gherna1]

That’s what I selected, now that I see the wording. Thank you!

[dishuser]

eject the drive

unplug and plug back in

and format as removable drive

don't forget to go into pvr options and select that drive for what you want

mine is listed as android in both my u5 and 4900

Edited January 1, 2023 by dishuser

[Emporium]

As DU mentioned, if you have an option, you NEED to ensure it is formatted as Portable Storage and NOT Internal Storage.

 

[gherna1]

Thank you for the feedback. I’ve done the first several times when it’s detected. The other times I can only see its status.
I’ve disconnected the device, turned power off and restarted it. Sometimes I would see the message about the HDD being attached, but only 2 out of 10 times. The other times I only see messages about TS not syncing when I switch channels. I’ve given up. 
I believe it’s a poorly written BIOS that fails to detect the hardware and only does it haphazardly.